Proton Malaysia

Performance appraisal can be defined as the formal system which evaluates and examines the performance of the employees on periodic basis. It is a process with the help of which the performance of the employees is measured whereby employee performance is the level to which the work requirements have been completed by the employee. In other words, it is the process of making identification, observation, measurement and development of the performance of the employees in an organization. In other words, performance appraisal is not only responsible for measuring the performance but also acts as a tool for the development of employees (DeNisi & Smith, 2014). This report is focused on one of the function of performance appraisal. The function selected for the purpose of this report is providing adequate feedback to the employees on their performance. Furthermore, it focuses on the evaluation of how it can improve the employee performance in Proton Malaysia along with the relevant suggestions.

The organization selected for the purpose of this assignment if Proton Malaysia. Proton Holdings Berhad or Proton is the company based in Malaysia and is engaged in the business of automobile designing, manufacturing, distribution and sales.  The establishment of Proton took place in the year 1983 as the sole national budget car company of that time. The vision of Proton is to become a leading mobility solutions provider in the globe. On the other hand, the mission of Proton provides to ensure the continuous creation of innovative products, services and processes in order to win the hearts and minds of people. The types of employees engaged in the company are those who are capable of learning new technologies easily. This is due to the fact that the automotive industry is highly tech- focused. Around 12,000 employees are current employed in this company (Proton, 2018).

The three basic functions of performance appraisal are providing adequate feedback to the employees regarding their performance, serving as a basis for the modification or change in the behavior towards more effective working habits, and providing the requisite data to the managers with the help of which they can judge the compensation and future job assignments. The concept of performance appraisal is central to effective management (Rabenu & Tziner, 2016).

This assignment is based on the most important function of performance appraisal i.e. providing the employees feedback regarding their performance. When feedback is provided to the employees regarding their performance during a specific period of time provides an opportunity to the employees to improve their performance in the needed direction (Fletcher & Williams, 2016(. This is the main purpose of this function of performance appraisal.  The feedback can be either positive or negative. In other words, there is possibility that the components of the feedback can be positive or negative (Lee & Steers, 2017). This is the most important function of performance appraisal as the future performance of the employees is dependent on this function. Feedback plays a key role in the improvement of the performance of employees. Sometimes feedback is often misunderstood as criticism, however, a well- delivered constructive criticism can assist in the improvement of performance and production of better decisions (Ikramullah, Van Prooijen,  Iqbal & Ul- Hassan, 2016). The managers require their workforces to be highly motivated and engaged for the achievement of organizational goals.  For this, feedback is required in order to motivate them to produce optimal outcomes. Whether the feedback is positive or negative, it can perform the function of motivating the employees. In case of positive feedback, the employee is motivated to further improve the performance in order to become the best performing employee of the organization, and on the other hand, if the employee is performing below average then he/she will be motivated to become at least the average performer of the organization (Brown, Kulik & Lim, 2016).

Basic Functions of Performance Appraisal

Furthermore, communication is also improved between the employee and the reviewer. Along with this, the long term goals can also be addressed by providing a career path to the employees. The employees who are unable to meet the performance standards can be offered effective training and development opportunities and work achievement recognition can be offered to those who have performed well during the given period. The process of performance feedback involves evaluating the performance of the employee over a period of time, making identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the performance, acknowledging the outstanding performance of the employee, making identification of the areas where training is needed, and determining the development programs for employee (Rasheed, Khan, Rasheed & Munir, 2015).

The employee performance in Proton can be improved with the help of the selected function of performance appraisal.  Proton is engaged in the designing, development, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of motor vehicles.  Working in an automobile company is a difficult job. The employees are required to learn the use of new technology every now and then so that the cars produced by the company can effectively compete in the market. New technologies make working in an automobile industry a difficult job. Some employees are quickly able to learn the use of new technologies. On the other hand, the adoption of the use of new technologies in the day to day tasks becomes very difficult for some employees. This difficulty is reflected in the performance of the employees over a period of time (Parke, Weinhardt, Brodsky, Tangirala & DeVoe, 2018).

Performance appraisal will be the step where the management ill identify how effective the hiring and placing of employees have been for Proton. This will be the step where the management if Proton will review the performance of all the employees in the organization along with their progress in the job and assessment of their potential for future improvement. When the management of Proton will use performance appraisal for their employees, it will perform the function of offering the feedback to their employees regarding their current performance in the organization. Accordingly, the management will be capable of making the identification of the strengths and weaknesses of each employee working in Proton. If possible, the management of Proton can make an effective use of the strengths of the employees for the benefit of the organization by engaging them in the tasks that needs their expertise and competence. On the other hand, the management of Proton can also focus on the weaknesses of the employees by way of providing them effective training (Dipboye, 2018).  The employees who are performing extremely well should be rewarded as the outstanding performer along with providing them recognition in front of the employees of whole organization. This will further motivate them to improve their performance. The employees who are performing below average will be provided adequate training such that they can improve their performance. Training will enhance the skills of the employees to adopt new technologies and processes quickly. Furthermore, development programs will also be organized for the employees (Iqbal, Akbar & Budhwar, 2015).

Importance of Feedback in Improving Employee Performance

For the purpose of improving employee performance in Proton, the company needs to follow the entire process of performance appraisal which involves steps such as identification of performance evaluation objectives, development of performance standards, monitoring of the work performance of employees, evaluation of performance and discussion of such evaluation with the respective employee.  The evaluation of performance will evaluate the performance of the employees against the standards set at the beginning. If there are deviations in the performance then the standards set at the beginning then it will be discussed with the employee by the managers. They will identify the problems which are being faced by the employees such that they can be resolved on time and the performance can be improved.  The performance of the employees working in Proton can be significantly improved if it will be delivered in a positive manner. In this way, it will support the growth of both the organization and the individual. Proton can embrace a positive feedback culture in the organization which will improve the performance (Mostafa, Gould? Williams & Bottomley, 2015). Providing feedback to the employees will improve employee performance in the following manner:

Specificity- the results of the feedback are the best when it is associated with a specific goal. When the employees are communicated that they are performing well in the organization then they can be expected to exceed their goal by 10% (Ayers, 2015).

Timeliness- The feedback given at the time of performance appraisal will allow them to perform for the next period by making extra efforts.

Manner- the manner of feedback adopted in Proton should be such that it improves the performance. The responses of the employees are better to the information presented in a positive way and therefore, the feedback should always be expressed in a positive manner (Mone & London, 2018).

Following suggestions should be followed by Proton for the purpose of improving the feedback process for improving the performance of employees.

There should be equality and impartiality in the feedback and the performance appraisals done by the organization Proton. The same should be followed during the assessment of the employee performance along with the maintenance of the same standards for each and every employee working in the organization. Moreover, at the time of providing the feedback to the employees, their concerns should also be given equal importance along with the factors which are reducing their productivity in the organization.  Along with this, the organization should aim at building a culture which values feedback and is willing to improve the performance by taking the feedback into consideration. Furthermore, the company should provide feedback to the employees with the help of objective and concrete examples (Harrington & Lee, 2015).  

Improving Employee Performance in Proton Malaysia

For this, the feedback process does not need to be overcomplicated.  It should be given and received in an easy manner. The employees should be provided with a framework which provides them an opportunity to actively request and share feedback in a straightforward and simple manner. Moreover, the feedback given should be multi- directional. Proton should not make the use of traditional feedback process in which only top- down feedback is allowed. This is due to the fact the adoption of this process make the employees feel that there is no importance of their input (Cheng, 2014). However, if Proton will adopt the multi- directional approach it will provides the employees an opportunity to provide bottom- up feedback.

Conclusion 

Therefore, it can be concluded that performance appraisal is the formal system which evaluates and examines the performance of the employees on periodic basis. Proton is the company based in Malaysia and is engaged in the business of automobile designing, manufacturing, distribution and sales. This report focused on one of the function of performance appraisal. The function selected for the purpose of this report was providing adequate feedback to the employees on their performance.  When feedback is provided to the employees regarding their performance during a specific period of time provides an opportunity to the employees to improve their performance in the needed direction.

Training will enhance the skills of the employees to adopt new technologies and processes quickly. Furthermore, development programs will also be organized for the employees for the purpose of improving their performance. It is suggested that there should be equality and impartiality in the feedback and the performance appraisals done by the organization Proton along with building a culture which values feedback.

References

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Proton. (2018). Research and Development. Retrieved October 31, 2018 from https://www.proton.com/en/corporate/about-us/research-development

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